Crackpot Doc Wants More Gun Control, Because Feelings

Y’all, a doctor at the Medical College of Wisconsin doesn’t have any evidence to support his political views, but he’s going to argue that your rights need to be restricted because of his emotions.

John Densmore has seen more tragedy in his career as a pediatric surgeon and associate professor at Medical College of Wisconsin than most of us combined, and you might expect someone in his position to distance themselves from it all, as a survival method.

Instead, in the aftermath of one particularly tragic incident, Densmore decided to work even harder. Hearing him discuss the challenges, and the impact, of gun violence is heartbreaking.

Two years ago, Densmore was involved in the surgery of a one-year-old who was shot two days after Christmas. If you had to double-check that it says “one-year-old,” you’re not alone. The doctor himself initially thought it was a mistake as well.

He was no stranger to treating children with gunshot wounds, but never one so young. In an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel details the surgeon’s efforts to save young Bill Thao, and the emotional toll the ultimately unsuccessful attempts took on him and his staff.

“A place like Children’s is not a sterile box where the injured go and they either make it or they don’t. There are people, human beings, in that box, making it happen.”

As a result of his work, he has become convinced that the gun problem is getting worse – in a four year period from 2012-2016, more than 200 gunshot victims were treated at his hospital – and he has joined efforts to try and curb it.

“It has me feeling, whether or not it’s true, that the problem is becoming more exaggerated or, worse, spreading,” Densmore said.

He fears what the epidemic of gun violence is doing to his city, and to the country.

For someone who belongs to a profession theoretically based in science, Densmore’s flippant “whether or not it’s true” is terrifying.

He doesn’t give a damn whether or not his commentary is based on facts or evidence. If he did even basic research he would have quickly determined that violent crime is on a steep multi-decade decline, as are accidental and negligent shootings, even as gun sales and ownership have skyrocketed.

There is no “gun violence epidemic” in the United States. Gun ownership isn’t the problem. “”Gun violence” is just another dishonest attempt at rebranding the failed cause of gun control. If Densmore actually gave a damn, he’d be focusing on the data.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has their annual crime report, “Crime In the United States,” posted online for the past 20 years, from 1995 until 2015, and it would be a logical place for Dr. Densmore to being the research he apparently doesn’t feel that he needs to do.

Even a rudimentary comparison of data would show that there was a momentary spike in violent crime with firearms in 1994 before the beginning of a 20-year decline. Criminal homicides with firearms dropped below 10,000 in 2007, below 9,000 in 2010, and crept down towards 8,000 in 2014 before experiencing an uptick in 2015 that corresponds with Barack Obama’s so-called “war on cops” and decision to commute the sentences of more than a thousand drug dealers, including those who committed gun crimes.

When we look at the breakdown of criminal homicides by age, we see that even in the off-year of 2015, just 1,093 people under 18 were murdered by weapons of any kind, and the vast majority of those weren’t pre-schoolers.

The vast majority of those slain were 13-19 years old; the prime age for activity for criminal activity in narcotics gangs.

Of course, Dr. Densmore doesn’t dare talk about gang violence, or the cultures that use violence as a currency just as casually as we pay with cash or plastic.

Dr. Densmore doesn’t care about stopping the influx of young patients into his ER, not really. If he did, he’s speak out and attack the gang violence that is the source of the problem. It was, after all, a drug dealer that pumped more than 40 rounds into the home of that one-year-old tow days after Christmas.

We have a thug culture problem in this country, where violence is accepted and even celebrated in music and Hollywood.

When Densmore and his fellow liberals want to actually address that problem I’ll believe that they care about solving the problem.

Until they do they’re merely virtue-signaling, and pretending to care.

Bob Owens is the Editor of BearingArms.com.
Bob is a graduate of roughly 400 hours of professional firearms training classes, including square range and force-on force work with handguns and carbines. He is a past volunteer instructor with Project Appleseed. He most recently received his Vehicle Close Quarters Combat Instructor certification from Centrifuge Training, and is the author of the short e-book, So You Want to Own a Gun.
He can be found on Twitter at bob_owens.
https://bearingarms.com/author/bobowens-bearingarms/